The full Texas Senate voted in favor of starting a new, major University of Texas System university and medical school in South Texas.

With a vote of 30-1, the Senate approved Senate Bill 24, which would create the institution by merging two existing universities, UT-Pan American in Edinburg and UT-Brownsville. The UT Health Science Center San Antonio Regional Academic Health Center in Harlingen also would be part of the new institution.

"Today is a historic day for the Rio Grande Valley," state Sen. Eddie Lucio, D-Brownsville, a primary author of the bill, told his Senate colleagues in a prepared statement.

"The Rio Grande Valley is one of the largest and fastest-growing geographical areas in Texas. Our demographics already offer a preview of what the nation's demographics will look like within a generation. This new university will immediately become one of the largest Hispanic-serving institutions in the country," according to another part of his statement.

Originally published in the San Angelo Standard Times.